Texas A&M rallies to beat No. 24 Lady Vols 61-59

Khaalia Hillsman converted an offensive rebound for the go-ahead basket with four seconds left Sunday as Texas A&M erased an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit in a 61-59 victory over No. 24 Tennessee. The rally gave Blair his first victory over the Lady Volunteers at Knoxville in eight attempts.

Blair, a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, pulled a 50-cent piece out of his pocket during his postgame press conference. He said the coin was made in 1945, the same year he was born.

“If it gets tight in a ballgame, I start rubbing that sucker,” Blair said. “It worked again today. I hope like heck I won’t lose this thing. It’s special.”

Tennessee (16-9, 7-5 SEC) missed its last 11 field-goal attempts as Texas A&M (19-6, 9-3) outscored the Lady Vols 14-1 over the final 8½ minutes. It was only fitting that the winning basket came on a putback, as Texas A&M outrebounded Tennessee 45-34 and outscored the Lady Vols 14-8 in second-chance points.

“They just had a little bit more of a will than we did down the stretch,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said.

After trailing by 11 early in the fourth quarter, Texas A&M rallied to tie it at 59-all on Curtyce Knox’s 3-pointer with 2:44 left. Texas A&M had the ball twice with a chance to break the tie but missed three shots on one possession and had Jasmine Lumpkin travel on its next possession.

But after Diamond DeShields missed a jumper with 39 seconds left, Texas A&M had one more chance to take the lead. This time, the Aggies cashed in as Hillsman scored after winning the rebound off a missed shot by Danni Williams.

Tennessee’s Mercedes Russell attempted a potential game-tying baseline attempt that bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

“We got a good look,” Russell said. “It looked good after I released it. I just missed it.”

Williams led the Aggies with 18 points. Hillsman had 10 points and 15 rebounds. Knox added 10 points and 10 assists without any turnovers.

After Texas A&M took its first lead of the day on Lumpkin’s jumper in the paint with 2:17 left in the third quarter, Middleton responded by sinking consecutive 3-pointers to spark a 12-0 run that put the Lady Vols ahead 58-47 with 8:49 remaining.

But the Lady Vols scored just one more point the rest of the day.

BIG PICTURE

Texas A&M: Knox shot just 3 of 15, but her passing helped keep the Aggies in the game. Knox has 9.5 assists per game to lead all Division I players, putting her on pace for an SEC single-season record for assists per game. Martha Monk had 8.9 assists per game for Auburn in 1980-81.

Tennessee: The Lady Vols didn’t get much offense from DeShields, who had been averaging a team-high 18.5 points. After sitting out most of the second quarter with foul trouble, DeShields didn’t take a single shot in the third period. She ended up shooting 4 of 12 and scoring eight points.

Tennessee had returned to the poll Monday after an eight-week absence, but this loss could knock the Lady Vols back out. Texas A&M might be heading back into the rankings. The Aggies were the second team listed in the “also receiving votes” section Monday.